Following protocol, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office conducted an investigation into the shooting of Andy Grimm by Deputy Jake Shaw. The investigation was ordered by Chief Deputy Jeff Meyer on April 12, 2018, and was concluded on July 16, 2018.

The New Carlisle News had made requests to several members of the Sheriff’s department to be notified when the investigation was concluded, but no notification was received. When we learned that Shaw was back on road patrol, we made a public records request for documents related to that investigation.

Here is what we learned.

Shaw was employed by the Sheriff’s Department in January, 2015 and was assigned to Road Patrol in New Carlisle in May, 2017.

When we interviewed Meyer for a story regarding Shaw’s return to road patrol, Meyer stated that the standard training period for a road deputy is ten weeks. Shaw’s was originally to be one to two weeks, but lasted four weeks. His trainer was Deputy Sheila Crews.

In an email to Lt. Dusty White and Sgt. Ralph Underwood, Lt. Brad Barnhart stated, “I don’t know what the plan is to train J. Shaw for New Carlisle. I have heard from him that he is getting 4 weeks training which falls short of the FTO program drastically.” He also stated that direct involvement with his Sergeant was required, including weekly meetings.

In her interview in the investigation, Crews stated that there were no weekly meetings. She was asked how many meetings she had with Sgt. Underwood, and she stated, “Maybe one.”

When Crews was asked about any training concerns, she said “I did basically the bare minimum.”

Crews also said that she was told by higher-ups that Shaw was coming off of his field training. She said that they gave him one more week, “and after that he wasn’t going to get no more.”

“They were only going to give him two or three [weeks], and they said ‘Do you think he needs another week?’ and I said ‘yes.’” Said Crews. “I think he should have had more training. He knew what he was doing, but I don’t think three or four weeks was enough for him to come off.”

Crews said that she would have continued his training if she hadn’t been told to release Shaw.

Lt. White, in his interview, stated that Shaw was originally to be assigned to Mad River Township for extra duty, but that Shaw’s assignment was changed to New Carlisle due to the absence of Deputy Rachel Allender who was on maternity leave.

White also related an incident involving Shaw on August 15, 2017. Shaw was on Rt. 41 just east of the roundabout heading toward New Carlisle and checked a speeder eastbound on Rt. 41. “He did a pursuit turn in the roadway to go and stop this car,” said White. “This was him being proactive on his way to work. When he flipped, an oncoming car hit him in the passenger door.”

White said he had problems with Shaw’s turn. “He didn’t go off to the shoulder, hard turn left and make a clear, clean turn to go the other direction,” said White. “He turned, dropped it in reverse and then was doing one of these ‘granny turns’ to try to get turned around.” White said that put Shaw in a “bad spot.”

He said the State Patrol investigated the incident and “probably negotiated the scene in our favor.” Shaw was not cited because OSP determined that the oncoming car was going too fast.

White said that he is not sure who cleared Shaw’s training, but “I was told that former Chief Deputy Travis Russell went out and rode with him and waved his wand and cleared him.” White said he was not able to confirm this hearsay story with upper level management at the Sheriff’s Department.

In his interview, Shaw stated that he saw Andy coming north on Main Street, pull into Studebaker’s parking lot, and stop “abruptly” in the first parking space. “I thought it was highly unusual that the Jeep would pull off the road and park at the restaurant at that time at night,” said Shaw, yet he did not attempt to investigate.

He also said he watched Andy exit the vehicle and look at him but did not yet recognize Andy. He also watched Andy reach into the back seat, look at him again, reached into the back seat again and pulled out “what I believed was a long rifle.”

“He held this object – what I believed to be a rifle – with two hands as someone would hold a long gun,” said Shaw. “His right hand was holding what I believed to be the rifle with his right elbow at a 90-degree angle. His left arm was extended with his left hand underneath the object supporting its weight.”

Shaw said that Andy “turned quickly in my direction, continuing to hold the object like a rifle.”

Shaw then said, “There was no time to verbally identify myself and issue verbal commands to the individual,” and he fired two shots.

Shaw was immediately placed on administrative leave, then returned to full duty on October 21, 2017 and assigned to the Jail.

He was then returned to road patrol on July 30, 2018.

Andy was not interviewed in this investigation. Instead, they relied on a video of an interview conducted by BCI in the hospital the day after the shooting.